Cream Puffs
Ingredients
choux paste:
½ cup butter or margarine
1 cup water
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
Vanilla or Almond Pastry Cream (below)
confectioners' sugar
Fillings and Glaze
Vanilla Pastry Cream:
In 2-quart saucepan, combine ¾ cup sugar, ¼ cup all-purpose flour and ¼ teaspoon salt; stir in 1½ cups milk. Over medium heat, cook, stirring, until mixture thickens and boils, about 10 minutes; boil 1 minute.
In small bowl with fork, beat 6 egg yolks slightly; beat small amount of milk mixture into yolks; slowly pour egg mixtrue back into milk mixture, stirring. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring until mixture thickens and coats spoon well, about 8 minutes (do not boil). (To check thickness, lift metal spoon from mixtrue and hold up 15 seconds; spoon should not show through mixture.) Remove from heat; stir in 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract. Cover surface with plastic wrap; chill well, about 2 hours.
In small bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat 1½ cups heavy or whipping cream until stiff peaks form. With rubber spatula, gently fold cream into custard.
Almond Pastry Cream:
Prepare as above but substitute 1 teaspoon almond extract for vanilla.
Semisweet Chocolate Glaze:
In 1-quart saucepan over low heat, melt 2 squares semisweet chocolate and 2 tablespoons butter, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 cup confectioners' sugar and 3 tablespoons milk until smooth. (Makes 1 cup.)
Directions
Grease 2 large cookie sheets. Prepare choux paste: In 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, heat butter, water and salt until butter mixture boils. Remove from heat.
Add flour all at once. With wooden spoon, vigorously stir until mixture forms a ball and leaves side of pan. Preheat oven to 375°F.
Add eggs to flour mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until smooth. Cool mixture slightly.
Using large spoon and rubber spatula, drop batter onto cookie sheets in 12 large mounds, 3 inches apart, swirling top of each. Bake 50 minutes.
Remove from oven; cut slit in side of each puff. Return to oven; bake 10 minutes. Turn off oven; dry puffs in oven 10 minutes. Cool. Prepare filling; cover and chill.
When puffs are cool, slice top off each. Fill each shell with the chilled Vanilla Pastry Cream; replace top. Sprinkle tops of cream puffs with some confectioners’ sugar.
Reference
“The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook”My Comments
I only used 3 eggs, so it took less baking time.
Because it takes awhile for the filling to cool down, I prepared Vanilla Pastry Cream about 2 hours before I made the puffs.
It would taste even better with chocolate glaze!
Another time, I made cream puffs using Bird’s Custard as filling, but they weren’t as good.